Tag: cakes

I couldn’t decide if I should call this bread, cake or brownie. All I know is it’s fudgey, delicious and you need it in your life.

I’m always intrigued by new ingredients and working in the field that I do I always try to experiment a bit to cater for all. I found coconut flour in the supermarket and decided to give it another whirl in baking. I had tried it before and the results were awful. Although it may seem like only a small amount in this recipe it soaks up so much moisture that a little really does go a long way.

This is best served warm either on it’s own or with big dollop of yoghurt (chocolate coconut yoghurt if you want to keep the theme going!)

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 Medium Ripe Bananas, mashed

4 Large Eggs

50g (¼ Cup) Dairy Free Margarine or Coconut Oil, melted

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

50g (¼ cup) Soft Brown Sugar

25g (3 tablespoons) Coconut Flour

60g (¾ Cup) 100% Cacao Powder

¼ teaspoon of Salt

75g (½ cup)Dark Chocolate, chopped into chunks

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 ℃

Grease and line a loaf tin with baking parchment.

Separate the eggs. Place the whites in one large mixing bowl and the yolks into another mixing bowl. Set the bowl of whites to the side for the time being.

Right, time for a little rant. Something I’m seeing a lot of is “refined sugar free” baking. Essentially replacing sugar with another sweetener, be it coconut palm sugar, maple syrup or honey just to name a few. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that I don’t eat these alternatives. I love a good drizzle of honey on my porridge and what are pancakes without maple syrup BUT to claim a cake to be sugar free and essentially replacing it with another sugar is false and misleading. All of the aforementioned sweeteners still count as “free sugars”, something we should all be“free sugars”, something we should all be cutting down on.

So, on a mission to make a cake with no free sugars, I came up with this. This isn’t only great to have with a cup of tea but it makes a super on the go breakfast too. Make a batch on Sunday night and you have breakfast sorted for the week, throw on a dollop of yoghurt and you’re onto a winner.

Apricot and Blueberry Cake (Makes 9 pieces)

Ingredients:1 ½ Cups of Oats

½ Cup of GroundAlmonds

2 teaspoons of Baking Powder

½ teaspoon of Salt

1 Cup of Soft Apricots (the “ready to eat” kind)

2 Eggs

1 Cup of Milk (I used Oat Milk)

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

½ teaspoon of Almond Extract

2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil, you can use any type of vegetable oil.

1 Cup of Fresh Blueberries

¼ Cup of Flaked Almonds (optional)

Method:

Preheat you oven to 180℃.

Great a small 9” x 9” square tin using whatever oil you are using in the main mixture. Line with baking paper and set to one side.

Place the oats into a food processor and blitz until they form a rough flour, similar to the texture of wholemeal wheat flour. It takes about 2-3 minutes.

Tip the flour into a bowl add the ground almonds, salt and baking powder, set this dry mixture to one side.

Place the apricots into a food processor or blender along with the milk, eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract and coconut oil. Blitz until everything is fully combined and you have a thick, relatively smooth puree.

Add this wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir through until everything is thoroughly combined.

Fold through the blueberries dispersing them evenly throughout the mixture.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and smooth it out so it’s level and even across the top. At this point you can sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.

Put the cake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, check it after 35. Just test this as you would a normal cake, place a skewer in the centre and if it comes out clean the cake is done.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. It’s really delicious when it’s still a little warm.

I really hope you enjoy this as much as I do x

A few alteration to suit dietary needs are listed below.

Egg Free/Vegan.

Replace each egg with one chia or flax egg. To make 1 x chia/flax egg:

Take 1 tablespoon of milled chia seeds or milled flax seeds. Mix with 3 tablespoons of water and stir thoroughly. Set to one side for about 15 minutes until it forms a gel. Use as per the eggs in the above recipe.

Nut Free

Use 2 cups of Oats in the recipe and omit the ground almonds.

Gluten Free

Oats in themselves are naturally gluten free. Cross contamination with gluten containing foods can occur during processing. So, if you have coeliac disease or a genuine intolerance to gluten ensure the brand of oats that you are using states it is gluten free.

If you are using a plant based milk please also check the label to ensure it is gluten free.